The Hitler Myth

History Today ^ | Ian Kershaw

[fivecatsandadog]

Historic attachments to heroic leadership combined with a mastery of propaganda techniques to mesmerise Germany into acceptance of the charismatic authority offered by the Nazi 'Fuhrer'.

For almost a decade after 1933, Hitler enjoyed a remarkable degree of popularity among the great majority of the German people. However dramatic and spectacular his political career, concentration on Hitler's character and personality – in some respects bizarre, in others downright mediocre and wholly unpleasant – can nevertheless do little to explain the magnetism of his popular appeal. Nor can his extraordinary impact on the German people in these years be accounted for satisfactorily by seeing in Hitler's personal Weltanschauung (notably in his obsessions with the 'Jewish Question' and with Lebensraum) a mirror image of the motivation of Nazism's mass following. Recent research has done much to qualify such assumptions, suggesting too that even deep into the period of the dictatorship itself Hitler's own ideological fixations had more of a symbolic than concrete meaning for most Nazi supporters.

What seems necessary, therefore, is an examination not of Hitler's personality, but of his popular image – how the German people saw their leader: the 'Hitler Myth'. The 'Hitler Myth' was a double-sided phenomenon. On the one hand, it was a masterly achievement in image-building by the exponents of the new techniques of propaganda, building upon notions of 'heroic' leadership widespread in right-wing circles long before Hitler's rise to prominence. On the other hand, it has to be seen as a reflection of 'mentalities', value-systems, and socio-political structures which conditioned the acceptance of a 'Superman' image of political leadership. Both the active manufacture of Hitler's public image and the receptivity to it by the German people need, therefore, to be explored.

[fivecatsandadog]

Hopefully, history is not destined to be repeated.

[kidd]

I used to wonder how the German people of the early-1930s could blindly support such a horrible man.

But I think I’ve seen firsthand how it happened with Obama and his supporters.

Blind devotion is a dangerous thing.

[Darksheare]

History will repeat.

[infowarrior]

the new techniques of propaganda, building upon notions of 'heroic' leadership widespread in right-wing circles long before Hitler's rise to prominence.

Mr. Kershaw calls himself a historian, and proffers *THIS*? He is as much an employer of propaganda as the late Shickelgruber was. And *BOTH* are/were left wing, to boot!

the infowarrior

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Nor can his extraordinary impact on the German people in these years be accounted for satisfactorily by seeing in Hitler’s personal Weltanschauung (notably in his obsessions with the ‘Jewish Question’ and with Lebensraum) a mirror image of the motivation of Nazism’s mass following.”

I thought it said Lesbianism. Need more coffee.

[CodeToad]

“History will repeat.”

Yes, it will. Obama voters don’t know history so they are doomed to repeat it.

[98ZJ USMC]

Possibly, but this is bassackwards. Instead of liquidating a minority it’s pandering to a minority(s) and instead of strengthening the economy it’s weakening the economy. Wheras Hitlers’ strengthening played to his increasing popularity, the reverse is true here. A economic crash will turn his acolytes off real fast.

The question is: How long can the enemedia carry the water?

[cripplecreek]

I don't believe he was ever wildly popular among the German people. Maybe a 3rd were true believers, another 3rd just wanted to eat, and the remaining 3rd were too terrified to speak. After all, the guy only won a minor seat and political manipulations and deal making took him to real power.

Third Reich - The Rise (in their own words)

If anything, the nazis used things like manufactured consent to appear more popular than they were.

[Darksheare]

“Need more coffee.”

I know just the stuff to fix you up!
The approved Coffee Representative will be by shortly to have you fill out the disclaimer forms absolving us of any wrongdoing incase you suffer, say, full body possession and demonic utterances from the stuff.
*Rummages around for said forms*

[griswold3]

my German mother is almost hysterical at what is happening here. Before the war, she worked for a Family who had joined the NAZI Party and the Father became an officer. She was told she had to join the party to keep her job. She didn’t. She had no papers was arrested twice. The first time she was sent to a work farm, from which she escaped. The second, she was in France and escaped out the bathroom window. To this day, she is still defiant about ‘paperwork’.
She didn’t know what was coming. But we can recognize a pattern developing. I don’t believe that Obama is ‘the One’. It will be someone who comes after him, who will promise the ‘fix’ the mess he’s made. Prepare accordingly.

[johnny reb]

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” - Voltaire

[LucianOfSamasota]

Its chief elements were virulent anti-Marxism and the perceived need for a powerful counter to the forces of the Left

The National Socialists certainly opposed the 'Stalinist' Communists, but they were hardly enemies of Marxist theory. Strong central government control over means of production and government regulated distribution of rewards based upon a government perceived 'fairness' were intrinsic to the Nazi message. Neither free-market nor capitalist.

So, despite opposition to the 'Stalinist' Communists and Social Democrats, the Nazi's were merely a third socialist alternative.

[Darksheare]

Saw a guy with a bunch of Obama stickerson his car the other day.
If I dared have any kind of political stickers on my car, it would be vandalised.

[mohresearcher]

Blind devotion to a messianic personality of either right or left wing politically, is indeed a horrible thing for a democratic republic.

During the 2008 election I noticed the similarity between the adoration of the masses for Obama, and a nearly identical devotion to Hitler as recorded by the visual media of their times. In particular, I noticed that the faces of women in both eras were in awe of both men.

[HusbandMan]

I was just recently laid low by some kind of viral bug, and while hunkering down on the sofa one day watched a BBC documentary series on the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz. It was very fascinating to listen to the nazi survivors explain how they had no remorse for their actions because they had accepted the national propoganda telling them that the Jews were evil. They explained how the teaching was everywhere and very thorough to the point that it was all they new.

I sometimes wonder - Will our current time in history ever been looked at with unclouded eyes? And, if so, how will the press be viewed?

[cripplecreek]

Much of the nazi propaganda was pioneered by American progressive Edward Bernays and used extensively by Woodrow Wilson.

For those doubting the veracity of the linkage between American Progressivism and Nazi Propaganda, one need look no further than Woodrow Wilson and his “Committee on Public Information” or CPI.

“Karl von Weigand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Weigand his propaganda library, the finest Weigand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Weigand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me…” — Bernays, recalling a dinner at his home in 1933.

[cripplecreek]

They were fighting for the same hearts and minds.

[fivecatsandadog]

“If anything, the nazis used things like manufactured consent to appear more popular than they were.”

Well? Sound familiar?

[Joe 6-pack]

"...the nazis used things like manufactured consent to appear more popular than they were."

Axelrod calls it "astroturfing".

[dfwgator]

Remember at the time, radio and newsreels were the new media, the Nazis were the first to realize the tremendous power this new media had to sway public opinion. Newspapers were the old technology, and the Nazis knew they had to break the monopoly of the newspapers (which they considered to be in the hands of Jews), in disseminating information. They understood the power of symbolism, and radio and newsreels could convey this in a much more powerful way than newspapers ever could.